Today, when a user (waiting party) calls a large company or service center (queuing party), it is very likely that he or she (referred to collectively as “it” in this disclosure) will be connected to an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system. Such systems present the waiting party with information via a series of audio prompts and receive input from the caller via dual tone multi-frequency (DTMF) tones (also known as “touch tones”) or verbal commands.
An “IVR map” is a structured list of all the possible paths through a given IVR system, where each path consists of one or more nodes. FIG. 1 provides an illustrative example of such an IVR map. Each node in the map includes a prompt and possibly one or more commands. The prompt is the audio that is heard by the waiting party and is represented in the map by the corresponding text. A command allows the caller to navigate to another node. Examples of commands are DTMF tones and verbal commands. Each command will lead to another node in the IVR system, or will put the caller in a queue to speak to a live agent.
The strength of the IVR system is its universality. It works on any phone and is usable by even the least technically inclined people. IVR systems are favored by companies because they allow live agents to be used more effectively, which in turn reduces the costs of running call centers. Recent advances in technology are making IVR systems both easier to set up and more elaborate. Customer interactions that used to involve an agent—e.g. checking a bank balance, making a payment—are being delegated more and more to the “automated attendant”. It's clear that IVRs are going to be used for the foreseeable future.
However, IVR systems can be very frustrating to the waiting party. By way of example:                1. Companies are putting more and more marketing messages into their IVRs, which provides no value to the waiting party and increases the time it takes him or her to accomplish desired objectives.        2. For really long menus, it can be hard for the waiting party to remember all the options by the time the menu completes.        3. Often the waiting party simply wants to speak to an agent, but the path to get there is not obvious. In fact, sometimes companies make reaching an agent deliberately obtuse.        